This week Google had a special announcement for all you fundraisers out there: Google Checkout for Non-Profits. Wondering what that is and why you might care? Here's a brief overview.

Google Checkout is a service that accepts and processes credit card payments on your behalf. If you have a small store or accept donations on your website, like Colorado Greyhound Adoption or the Colorado Neurological Institute for example, you'll need a way to accept credit and debit card payments. One way to do that is to open a merchant account with a bank, which may have lower transaction costs but requires you to process the transactions yourself. Another way is to go through a third party. The third party takes care of the credit card charges for you and may even provide some protection against fraud and chargebacks, although the buyer may need to sign up first. Google's normal charge for this service is 2% plus 20 cents per transaction (similar to Paypal's high-volume merchant rate), although that charge is waived through the end of 2008 for nonprofits (through the end of 2007 for everyone else). So for the next fifteen months, and maybe longer, your nonprofit could be receiving credit card donations for free.

If Google's deal entices you into setting up a donation page for the first time, the easiest way to start is to grab a ready-made Donation button. You'll need very little html knowledge to take this first step. Just fill out the form on Google Checkout with a description and a dollar amount, pick a button color, and copy the generated code onto your website. It's also very easy to get a Buy Now button for selling individual items, useful if you just sell a few t-shirts and hats for your supporters. And if you're ready to use this opportunity to set up a larger store, Google has a list of off-the-shelf shopping carts that are already set up to work with Checkout.

Since it's currently free, you may also want to consider trying Checkout even if you're currently using another sales/donation method. By putting another donation link on your page, you can reach people who are already using Google for their shopping. In T4T's last newsletter, Jacob L. offered Google Checkout as a favorite Internet tool and discussed the benefits from a buyer point of view.

So hopefully you now have an idea about how to get started, or at least about whether or not you're interested. If you do decide to give Google Checkout a try, why not let T4T know how it went? Leave a comment or send an email, and share any successes or difficulties or tips you might have with your fellow Colorado nonprofits.